Word.ws English Dictionary

numbers game

numbers game noun: a lottery in which bettors attempt to guess which numbers will later be drawn randomly; especially, an illicit one.

Noun

numbers game (plural numbers games)

  1. A lottery in which bettors attempt to guess which numbers will later be drawn randomly; especially, an illicit one.
    • Back in that day, mafias ran the numbers games and there was no such thing as a state lottery.
    Synonyms:
    numbers[Appendix:Glossary
  2. The incorrect use of statistics (numbers) to reflect a desired result (usually misleading).
    • They're playing a numbers game to make it look like seat belts and vaccines are dangerous.
    • Is it not as misleading to apply a simple numbers game to the Civil Service as it is to the police?1969, Eric Ogden, “Government Departments (Staffing)”, in parliamentary debates (British House of Commons)
  3. An activity that benefits from having many things to work with or on; a focus on quantity.
    • In this business, breakeven is a numbers game: if you can achieve enough volume, you'll be all right.
    • If dating is, as Match.com's Trish McDermott puts it, “a number's game^([sic])”, there can be no denying that the numbers are increased online. The speed and affordability of these services are further attractions.2002 August 22, Andrea Semple, quoting Trish McDermott, “Love bytes”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC
  4. (uncommon) A game or sport that is dominated by analytics.
    • Somehow, to me, it's not quite as fun now that they've turned it into a numbers game.
    • Is rugby union losing its way by becoming a numbers game? [title]2020 January 9, Paul Rees, “Is rugby union losing its way by becoming a numbers game?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

Examples of numbers game in a sentence

  • We see today the results of playing the numbers game.1985, Jeff Rooker, “Inner Cities”, in parliamentary debates (British House of Commons):
  • I made it clear in a recent letter to the Minister, to which I do not expect him to reply tonight, that we will not play the numbers game of setting targets.1987, Jeff Rooker, “Housing and Homelessness”, in parliamentary debates (British House of Commons):
  • Plant breeding is always a numbers game.[…]The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, and individual plants are highly heterozygous and do not breed true.2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, archived from the...
  • At the same time, if you’re chasing the mobile pennies that replaced the digital dimes that replaced the print dollars, then the numbers game becomes more important than ever.2015 November 22, Felix Salmon, “Is mobile making media all the same?”, in The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC:

Synonyms of numbers game

  • numbers[Appendix:Glossary

Forms of numbers game

pluralnumbers games

Questions about numbers game

What does numbers game mean?
Numbers game means a lottery in which bettors attempt to guess which numbers will later be drawn randomly; especially, an illicit one.
How do you use numbers game in a sentence?
We see today the results of playing the numbers game.
What part of speech is numbers game?
Numbers game is a noun.
What is the plural of numbers game?
The plural of numbers game is numbers games.

Words near numbers game in the dictionary

  1. numberness
  2. numberous
  3. numberplate
  4. numberplates
  5. numbers
  6. numbers game
  7. numbers games
  8. numbers juggling
  9. numbers needed to harm
  10. numbers racket
  11. numbers rackets

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: numbers game (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “numbers game.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/numbers_game. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.